Posts Tagged ‘entertainment’

The makers of a Gaza TV candid camera show in honor of the month of Ramadan were wondering how would rank and file Gazans respond if they realized that there are a couple of Israelis standing and walking in their midst. The concept was funny enough, and the two actors, Chouikh and Abu Zubaydah, depicting the hapless Zionists were equipped with a visual aid, just in case their subjects didn’t get the idea from their mix of broken English and Arabic — they each had an unmistakable, blue and white Israeli flag printed on their shirts. And so, with the hidden camera rolling, the two brave actors showed up in different parts of Gaza City, in front of a variety of astonished local men of all ages.

The funniest reactions were those of irate Gazans who grabbed the provocative Israeli before them and started beating him up, and the canned laughter loved those scenes. Some of the violent responses immediately followed the appearance of the blue Star and David between two parallel lines; others emerged following an exchange with the actors, in a clothing store, on a soccer field, on the street in front of a warehouse. Each time, the actor under attack, occasionally under a mob attack, would start yelling, “It’s a hidden camera” and urged the crew members to save his life.

But there were less violent, and more introspective reactions, too, when the subject would enter a lengthy argument with the two actors over their proposal that he become Israeli, for instance, because Israel is a mighty superpower. Unaware of being on camera, several subjects stood up to declare their fealty to their nation and their faith, expressing their anger at the provocation.

In one exchange, early on, one of the actors tries to speak Hebrew to a subject, who is older and therefore versatile in the language. What develops is a strange dialogue between a faux Israeli who can barely finish a sentence in Hebrew, and a Gazan who speaks fluent Hebrew. The actor asks, “Ma shlomekh,” how are you, except in the wrong declension, using the female form. His subject forgives the mistake, answering, “Barukh Hashem,” as many Israelis would.

Despite the obvious rage many in the video, especially the younger ones, unleash at the mere sight of an Israeli avatars, it is clear that Israel, Israelis and their own identity in relation to the Jewish State are central to the culture and the communal psyche in Gaza. The fact that the video makers manage to treat the tension over the subject matter with humor, albeit lowbrow humor, suggests there may be more under the shallow surface of hatred and denunciations, including a longing for a time when the sound of Hebrew in the streets also represented prosperity, more personal safety and probably more humor.

The Jerusalem municipality will invest a record-breaking NIS 50 million per year starting this year to promote arts and culture in the capital.

Israel’s Ministry of Culture and Sports agreed on Sunday to allocate NIS 7 million to cultural institutions and ongoing initiatives to hike the city’s annual investment to a new record high.

Praising Culture and Sports Minister Miri Regev, Mayor Nir Barkat said in a statement released Sunday: “Jerusalem has experienced in recent years an unprecedented cultural renaissance, and returned as the cultural capital of Israel.

“The municipality will continue to operate and support the city’s cultural institutions in order to strengthen and promote the city’s culture – not only with new events and festivals, but by strengthening and leveraging the ongoing work of existing institutions, as well as by encouraging more entrepreneurial culture and artistic enterprises in the capital,” he vowed.

Jerusalem Wine Festival

This is the week of one of the biggest and most important events held each year in the capital: the Jerusalem Wine Festival, held annually by the Israel Museum.

The festival, which begins on Monday and runs through Thursday, is the leading event for the wine industry in Israel. It is a salute to Israeli wineries, which last year brought together a record 60 Israeli wineries that displayed hundreds of wine to taste.

This year’s festival is expected to welcome more than 20,000 visitors to the event.

In addition to booths for the tasting of wine, thousands of wine lovers who come from all over the country are also able to enjoy food from top restaurants, booths selling products to complement wine purchases, high quality gourmet products, live performances in a variety of styles, and more.

The event is held at the Art Garden of the Israel Museum, which is considered one of the world’s finest sculpture gardens.

ObamaDeal has turned comedian Jackie Mason, an ordained rabbi by the way, into a big supporter of Donald Trump, which gives the billionaire gadfly at least two Jewish votes. The first one, reported here last week by The JewishPress.com, is one of Trump’s executives and his special campaign counsel Michael Cohen.

Mason ridiculed other Republican party candidates on air Sunday, describing them as Trump’s “perfectly calculated opponents, who study and struggle to protect every word.”

He called Trump a “bombastic powerhouse” and a “colorful, dynamic character.”

Mason added:

He never even prepares what he is going to say and every time he talks he says something wrong that offends everybody, and 10 minutes later he gets more popular.

[Media claim that if Trump] makes another mistake he’ll be wiped out. Then, two weeks later he makes a bigger mistake. This is the most offensive mistake of all time, and everybody is celebrating. ‘Thank God he’s finished.’ Headlines in every paper: ‘It’s all over.’ Two minutes later he’s even bigger.

This is the same Jackie Mason who in 2011 said, as seen in the video below, that Trump is a “professional liar” and “the sickest man that ever lived.”

President Barack Obama and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry have changed his mind.

Mason told The Hollywood Reporter of Kerry:

This secretary of state, Kerry, negotiated with them [Iran] for a year-and-a-half and accomplished nothing. He ought to give us back for all the trips he made. He cost us millions of dollars in airplane fares and he came back with nothing except a bad foot.

He said that Obama probably told the Iranians, “Listen, could you keep the bomb quiet for a year and a half. Because if you don’t bomb us for a year and a half, I’ll be the big winner. Everyone will see I made a fantastic agreement. If you bomb us after I leave I could always say it’s the other guy’s fault.

Mason added:

First Obama said we can inspect them any time, any place, whenever we please. Now it turns out ‘whenever we please’ except when they don’t allow it. If they don’t want it it’s up to them….

Do you know that in the restaurants of New York, they have an inspection system? You can surprise any restaurant without notice that you can walk in and inspect them…

So we are protected in this city from a bad tuna fish. We’re not protected from a bomb but we’re protected from a bad quality of a tuna fish.

Haifa port may soon undergo a facelift, with a plan for redevelopment to include an entertainment zone, a commercial zone and links to the city’s beaches.

The new Seafront Plan, which will eventually lead to total cessation of regular port activity Haifa, is up for the discussion by the National Planning and Building Council on Tuesday.

If passed, a new promenade will grace the waterfront from the port to the Bat Galim neighborhood to the south.

Storage areas will be transformed into commercial and entertainment centers, similar to the hangars in Jaffa and Tel Aviv ports.

The Israel Ports Company has objected, claiming that closure of the western section of the working port will destroy revenues and workers’ incomes. But architect Renana Yardeni, appointed by the Interior Ministry, noted in her report to be presented Tuesday that construction of an alternate port site has already been approved – and started.

Doctors are hopeful that they can bring Jewish comedienne Joan Rivers out of a medically-induced coma by Sunday after she suffered cardiac arrest during minor throat surgery in New York on Thursday.

Her condition has been upgraded from “critical” to stable, but it is not known if she suffered brain damage due to lack of oxygen before arriving at the hospital.

“Her family wants to thank everybody for their outpouring of love and support. We will provide an update on her condition as it becomes available,” according to spokesman for Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York.

Her daughter Melissa flew in from California with her son to be by her 81-year-old mother’s side and said she is an “emotional wreck.” Melissa stated, “My mother would be so touched by the tributes and prayers that we have received from around the world.”

Rivers was a pioneer in opening the field of comedy to women and first become widely-known with an appearance on the Tonight Show in the days of Johnny Carson.

She made headlines during the war with Hamas by her solid support for Israel and her disgust for Hamas, going so far as to say that civilians in Gaza “deserve to be dead” for allowing them to be exploited by terrorists.

“The dead? You deserve to be dead. You started it. Don’t you dare make me feel sad about that,” she said in one interview.

“Tell that to the people in Hiroshima. When you declare war, you declare war. They started it.”

Well-known Israeli vocalist and songwriter Yigal Bashan, 64, was taken to to Ichilov Medical Center Sunday afternoon after having been stabbed in the chest. The performer was taken into surgery soon after he was admitted.

According to a report broadcast on Israel’s Army Radio, police have ruled out criminal motive for the attack. Bashan is currently listed in fair condition although there are few details available to media. Bashan’s manager, Paddy Pettav, said he “hopes there will be an improvement in his condition,” and added the singer “seemed to be doing well” when he spoke with him.

Over a span of 40 years, Bashan has spent years on the stage as a vocalist, actor and children’s television show host. The vocalist is extremely popular and has produced more than 30 albums over the years. He is known for songs such as “Sivan,” and “Yesh Li Tzipor Ketana B’Lev” (A Little Bird in my Heart) and as a member of a trio in the 1980s children’s program, ‘Hopa Hey.’

Rose Fostanes, the Filipina caregiver who won Israel’s “X Factor,” will be allowed to work in Israel as a performer.

On Monday, Israeli Interior Minister Gideon Saar ordered the Population and Immigration Authority to issue Fostanes an artists’ visa, which will allow her to be employed as a singer. The visa also requires Fostanes to stop working as a caregiver for her employer of the past five years.

Saar interceded when it was revealed that Fostanes’ work visa was valid only for employment as a caregiver.

Fostanes, 47, chose the artists’ visa over one that would have allowed her to continue working as a caregiver while singing on the side.

Her prizes on the “X Factor” include professional representation and the opportunity to record an album with an Israeli record label.

The family that employs Fostanes had to agree to the change in the visa status.

Fostanes has been working as a caregiver in Tel Aviv for the past six years and lives in a small apartment in Tel Aviv with seven other Filipinos. She has been working abroad in order to send money to her family and partner since she was 23, and has not been home to see her family in two years.